At the end of October SCHLEBRÜGGE.EDITOR published the first monograph to focus exclusively on the prolific collage output of our friend Sergei Sviatchenko. Edited by Rick Poynor, whose essay provides an engaging critical overview, it gathers Sviatchenko’s most significant work from the past 10 years and shows little seen collages from his early years in Ukraine before he moved in 1990 to live and work in Denmark. The severe reductiveness of Sviatchenko’s image manipulation sets his collages apart. Works from his long-running 'Less' series consist of only two or three elements floating on a jarringly bright background. The fewer fragments he allows himself to work with, the more crucial the acts of selection, excision and montage become. Depthless backdrops deny his collage constructions a sense of location and push them forward as graphically sculptural objects. The swift cuts that Sviatchenko makes into his source pictures give them angular new outlines that can verge on abstraction. The elegantly designed monograph is illustrated with 165 images, selected to bring out salient themes in Sviatchenko’s continuing development, which has made him one of our favorite collage artists since we discovered his work. [ Continue reading ]
The day before yesterday OPENHOUSE Magazine launched its highly anticipated second issue, after 6 months in which the Kickstarter funded debut edition of magazine spread its wings all over the planet, with Tenue de Nîmes as one of the many places where it could be found. Based in San Sebastian, Spain, OPENHOUSE was founded by Andrew Trotter and Mari Luz Vidal and is a magazine with a clear focus on beautiful photography and captivating interviews with people who invite the reader to their special places around the world. In the second issue Andrew and Mari talk to Jermome Waag, head chef at Chez Panisse, about what he likes to cook at home for his friends in his time off. In Barcelona the inspirational warehouse space Espacio 88 is visited. It holds an architecture studio, a coffee van in the mornings, and many different pop-ups. Also the Freunde von Freunden Apartment in Berlin is featured in one of the stories. We particularly love the story that takes its reader to a small village in the Italian countryside, where Attillio and Paola live in the old Cinema Flora, and regularly open their doors for film nights, with in the portrayed night one of our all-time favorite movies, Matthieu Kassovitz' La Haine being shown. We love how Andrew and Mari show great consistency and even growth within this second issue, which very likely will win over even more hearts than their debut. [ Continue reading ]
In 'L'amateur' Murielle Victorine Scherre, the visionary force behind lingerie brand La Fille d'O, illustrates a world that balances sexual self respect and an object of lust, naughtiness, fantasy and reality: her personal Wunderkammer of the senses. She captures an erotic world, where mind and body each find their own way. The book provokes questions about the contemporary beauty ideals and the universal appeal of the human body and of eroticism. The result is a visionary scrapbook in search of the true meaning of 9 hollow words like beauty, attraction, eroticism and pornography. Words which have been over-used in our modern day hyper-visual commercial world and Murielle finds herself confronted with in her everyday creative process and therefore wanted to visualize into her personal discourse. She draws from the immense image archive of La Fille d'O, which was built over the course of the last 11 years combined with contributions by like-minded amateurs (meaning enthusiast in French, not incompetent) like Jesse Draxler (USA), photobooth meister Marco Ferrari (IT / UK), Richard Kern (USA), S magazine (DK / USA) and Rita Lino (DUI). 'L'amateur' is like a very intimate diary; diligently and obsessive as life itself. In girum imus nocte et igni consumimur. [ Continue reading ]
We have been fans of the American-Japanese brand Postalco for many years now, also including some of their incredible products in our selection for Our Current Obsessions Nº 1 – NOIR. Last month the inspirational people of Postalco presented an extraordinary new collection of stationery and leather items inspired by the work of the artist Alexander Calder and developed in close collaboration with the Calder Foundation. Postalco was founded in Brooklyn in 2000, but soon moved to Tokyo, where they produce all their products from traditional Japanese craftsmanship, with every colorway of this particular collection carefully selected from those found in the artist’s work. After a visit to the Calder Foundation archives in New York, which contains more than 26.000 historic photographs, dozens of films, and over 130.000 documents covering all aspects of the artist’s life, Postalco discovered the artist’s lesser-known works, including jewelry, textiles, and domestic objects. Inspired by the way Calder erased boundaries between established genres, the resulting collection offers a unique glimpse into the prolific life of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century in an utmost elegant manner. [ Continue reading ]
We have written about the very gifted Austrian artist and illustrator Stefan Zsaitsis, when we discovered his fascinating work earlier, in October of this year. Zsaitsis has an extraordinary signature running through all his work. He creates highly fascinating dark pencil drawings of childlike figures in which he oftenly seems to hybridize particular thoughts and emotions directly on or with the body part which is involved, mostly the head. One can always observe that sense of astonishment combined with a touch of fear, with the results surrealistic and sometimes even slightly repulsive raw images, which evoke a sense of unsettlement. Last week the very talented artist presented his second publication with work stretching all the way back to 2012 until this year. The artist published the beautiful book himself, like the predecessor 'Headsongs', with his second publication given the name 'Homunculi'. The hardcover specimen consists of 180 pages with 82 images, basically forming an elaborate catalogue of almost all drawings Zsaitsis created in the past three years. [ Continue reading ]
We've been following the great Inventory Magazine since it grew out of the late h(y)r collective back in 2010. For the all new issue 11, which has been launched on several locations worldwide during the last week, the magazine has updated its look trough minor elegant touches. Both the design and format are renewed beautifully, without losing the Inventory feel, with the first cover feature in the new form focussing on the legendary Visvim founder and designer Hiroki Nakamura. Nakamura was shot by Mark Borthwick, volume 4's cover star, in a new distinctive style that uses two contrasting images of the designer, rather than the single, oversized shot that typically fronted the magazine in its former style. The new issue also includes pieces on Margaret Howell, Yohji Yamamoto, Oliver Payne, and John Gluckow. There's also a contribution from Russian multitalented designer and photographer Gosha Rubchinskiy, who designs his exciting eponymous line assisted by Comme des Garçons since last year and recently worked with Supreme. Inventory never disappoints. [ Continue reading ]
The Complete Lexicon of Crisis Related Suicides - 2008-2013/Volume 1' is a very impressive and confrontational history book on the painful impact of the economic crisis that overwhelmed the world since 2008, published by the small Dutch publishing house Uitgeverij Komma earlier this month. The book sketches an image of the current economical period and its specific victims through the eyes of graphic designer Richard Sluijs, who at the start of the crisis was a relative outsider in a country that seemed to be off the hook; The Netherlands. Sluijs, who’s been working as a graphic designer in The Hague from his studio Richlab for the last 14 years, depicts the personal suffering in a monumental, somewhat dark, but above all elegant way. The result is an unique collection of stories from people who could no longer endure their misery, and saw suicide as their only way out, given one last voice before they fade for good. [ Continue reading ]
When we visited Los Angeles in 2012 we first found out about the beautiful Kickstarter funded magazine named Atlas. The project, founded by New York-based writer and editor Laura Palmer and art director Jenna Yankun, is a print publication that curates American craft and curio. Each page of the elegant magazine tells the story of dedicated craftsmen and precious objects from the past. Last summer the third beautiful issue of Atlas was released. The latest edition charts new waters by crossing the great grey seas, far beyond the border of the United States and shares the stories of craftsmen and curio collectors from around the world. Among the inspirational stories one finds the story about salt harvesting along the Oregon coast, secrets of single-malt Scotch making and tips from vintage denim hounds. The little gift added to this particular issue is a clip from a vintage sea chart completing another wonderful issue by Laura and Jenna. [ Continue reading ]
'Mid-Century Modern Complete' by Dominic Bradbury, published through Thames & Hudson can be seen as the definitive survey of one of the most popular, collectable and dynamic periods of international design. With over a 1000 illustrations, it is a must-have for any design aficionado, collector or reader seeking inspiration for their home. It offers a comprehensive overview of all aspects of the subject: furniture, lighting, glass, ceramics, textiles, product design, industrial design, graphics and posters, as well as architecture and interior design, use of innovative and affordable materials and forms of mass manufacture, and newly developed precepts of ‘good design’. Nearly 100 major and influential creators of the mid-century period are highlighted from Scandinavia, Western Europe, America, Japan, Brazil and Australia. They include icons such as Saul Bass, Robin Day, Charles and Ray Eames, Marimekko, Isamu Noguchi, Dieter Rams, Lucie Rie and Paolo Venini, as well as architects Alvar Aalto, Philip Johnson, Richard Neutra and Oscar Niemeyer. Very inspirational! [ Continue reading ]
After our friends of The Travel Almanac premiered their interesting new venture last June in the form of TTA Editions, of which the second installment will be released somewhere in the beginning of 2015, they now will release the latest edition from their core: magazine number 8. Paul Kominek and his team created yet another incredible edition starting with the subtle blue cover color and suave cover subject Bryan Ferry. Next to the article on the Roxy Music frontman, one will find other features on the provocative photographer Leigh Ledare, the New York City-based painter Bjarne Melgaard, one of our favorite photographers Viviane Sassen, filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and finally musician Laurel Halo. The issue also holds a special feature on Iceland, winter boots and a story portraying the very skillful chocolatiers of the capital of chocolate; Belgium (also our all time favorite place to stay in Antwerp: Boulevard Leopold is mentioned). [ Continue reading ]
Istanbul, the beautiful city on the Bosphorus, is famous for its countless minarets, magnificent palaces, colorful markets and traders, seagulls and stray cats. The Turkish city is the only metropolis in the world that unites two continents. Traditional crafts collide with a young and blossoming art and design scene, which is slowly changing the face and image of the city. The 24th issue of inspirational Karlsruhe-based magazine Slanted takes a close-up look at contemporary design work and all the tumultuous developments in this cultural melting pot city balanced between the Orient and the Occident. On their one-week-trip the Slanted team met 15 design studios and produced comprehensive studio portraits which provide a vivid and up-to-the-minute picture of the scene. The resulting video interviews have been enriched with video material from the Shutterstock collection, and finally, thanks to augmented reality and the Junaio app, readers can easily watch embedded videos of the Istanbul turu on mobile devices. So good! [ Continue reading ]
Flowers are associated with all the major events in life, whether celebratory or commemorative, but they also color our everyday existence and enliven the spaces around us. The extraordinary 'Floral Contemporary: The Renaissance of Flower Design' by the very inspirational curator Olivier Dupon and published by Thames & Hudson, gives an amazing overview and wide array of options how to implement flowers within all those occasions. Through the work of 38 floral designers, flowers for every occasion are presented in an utmost elegant manner; whether public decorations for weddings, arrangements for banquets, installations for shops and hotels, accessories for fashion shows, exhibits for art shows or private, in the form of simple but special displays for the home: which resulted in one of the most beautifully curated and designed books on the beauty of flowers we have seen. [ Continue reading ]
We wrote about the stunning 'Post Natural History' project by French photographer Vincent Fournier last year when it was on display at the Amsterdam-based Ravenstein Gallery and we still find it one of the most interesting series we've seen in a long time. While the images themselves will leave you speechless regardless, Fournier in collaboration with Paris and New York-based creative Studio be-poles also created an amazing limited box set form which does 'Post Natural History' justice perfectly. We mentioned this collaboration in our last writing, but last month it returned on our rader as 20 of the 50 sets with signed and numbered color prints on fuji crystal archivemounted onto embossed board editions were (and are, at the time of writing only 1 edition was still available) for sale at the inspirational Los Angeles-based gallery/boutique Please Do Not Enter, which was kind enough to provide the imagery of this highly inspirational and elegant new form of the incredible series. [ Continue reading ]
Last week, on the 25th of September, the beautiful and inspirational second issue of Libraryman's Dogme Magazine was released, which again is of the highest standard. The magazine created by the very talented Tony Cederteg finds its key inspiration in the fact that a lens transmits and refracts light, but at the same time also often is used to focus light, which he translated to the magazine's ambition to take a closer look through the creative lens of film, fashion, and photography. Always presenting lucid portraits of their favorite creative subjects. The first issue featured impressive names like Anders Danielsen Lie and Harmony Korine, for the second issue Cederteg and his team focus on for instance the amazing actor Denis Lavant, filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Isabel Coixet and composer Mark Mothersbaugh. The list of contributors also shows many new names among which are the incredible photographer Lena C. Emery and returning name Ola Rindal. [ Continue reading ]
'Faculty Department' is a beautiful personal photography project and visual journey by the talented Justin Chung, focussing on the lives, spaces and stories of talented and noteworthy individuals worldwide. Chung’s interest in photographing creative people came alive when he moved to New York City to pursue a career in commercial fashion photography and portraiture in 2011. Chung found that while he was inspired by the work these creatives were producing, what he felt most connected to was their process: how the smallest intricacies in their daily lives contributed to making them the most effective, most happy, and most real. It is these intimate details Chung hopes to capture in the pages of 'Faculty Department'. [ Continue reading ]
At the initiative of the OstLicht Gallery and Peter Coeln in Vienna, 'Araki Teller, Teller Araki' which took place from the 4th of April until the 25th of May of this year, brought together two of the most important photographers of our times, showing new works conceived for this joint exhibition and entering into an artistic dialogue. The exhibition presented the encounter between two attitudes of extraordinary photographers, who are united in their radical artistic attitude and their almost insatiable hunger for images as reflections of their personal experience of the world. The elementary interest at the core of their work is the spiritual and physical ambivalence of human existence. To coincide with the exhibition Antenna Books in a collaboration with Araki's own eyesencia released Nobuyoshi Araki's and Juergen Teller's first jointly conceived and designed book. The publication assembles more than 300 photographs, including those works shown as part of the exhibition which were previously unpublished. In addition, Araki and Teller have each dedicated a text to the other. [ Continue reading ]
The latest by inspirational Lisbon-based publisher Pierre von Kleist editions brings us back to Japan. After releasing the beautiful 'Japan Drug' by António Júlio Duarte in May now follows another tremendous grainy black and white photographic book by the name of 'Tokyo Diaries'. In 2009 André Príncipe, the co-founder of Pierre von Kleist editions, and filmmaker Marco Martins travelled to Tokyo to shoot a film about elliptical narratives and the importance of the diaristic practice in Japanese photography. During one month and in a totally improvised way, the filmmakers shot hours of 16mm footage and thousands of photographs of their daily life as well as their encounters with photographers such as Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, Takuma Nakahira, Hiromix, Kohei Yushiyuki and Kajii Syoin. The film which was the result of this trip: 'Traces of a Diary' was subsequently shown in film festivals around the world and received the jury prize at Documenta Madrid. And now the amazing book which was created out of the 100 rolls of Tri-X 400 film which remained unused brings the essence of the beautiful trip back to printed still images. We love the character which the images transcend, capturing a dynamic energy within a highly inspirational generation of Japanese photographers perfectly. [ Continue reading ]
We've been following the Dubai-based Brownbook Magazine for quite some years now and are super inspired by their totally unique perspective on lifestyle, which is oftenly imitated in the West but rarely shows the authenticity one only finds at the source. Last month, for the third time, they released their annual Fashion Directory which again is of the highest standard. The 2014 issue focusses on The Wedding. From a tribal beauty competition in Niger to an alfresco shaving ceremony in Turkey, beautiful photography and illustrations delve into the culture, customs and accessories of 10 of the most stylish weddings from past and present. One discovers the stories of recent brides and grooms, whether a henna night in Canada or a Muslim wedding in China, everything with an in-depth anthropological slant and beautifully designed. [ Continue reading ]
We are still inspired by the book named 'The Age of Collage' which was published by Gestalten a year ago. The book is a striking documentation of today’s continued appetite for destructive construction found in the art of collage. Showcasing outstanding current artwork and artists, the book also takes an insightful behind-the-scenes look at those working with this interdisciplinary and cross-media approach. The collages featured in this book are influenced by illustration, painting, and photography and play with elements of abstraction, constructivism, surrealism, and dada. Referencing scientific images, pop culture, and erotica, they reflect humanity’s collective visual memory and context. Among the featured artists are the highly talented Ashkan Honarvar and our friend, multitalent Sergei Sviatchenko. [ Continue reading ]
We've been fans of Tyler Brûlé's Monocle and everything they put out since its foundation in 2007. The next highly promising product, which will be released next month and published by another inspirational company, Gestalten, is 'The Monocle Guide to Good Business'; a book for would-be business leaders, start-ups, and established companies that feel it’s time for some new ideas. A book made to be used, like writing in its margins and leaving dog-ears in your favorite pages. No management speak or self-help miracles for untold riches. Rather, this is a guide championing doing things well: from how you run the show to minor details like which pens to buy. The 300-page book features great photography and illustrations. It's a handbook for those who want to make a company that will last; the ultimate reference for doing a job you love, by the people who are doing one hell of a job for quite some time now. [ Continue reading ]
Tipped by the good people of OPENHOUSE Magazine we recently found out about the new triennial magazine named Alphabet Family Journal, published in Sydney, Australia. The magazine explores the heart and soul of what it means to make a home together, giving an unfiltered snapshot of modern families, in all its guises. It is a magazine that celebrates the beauty of the everyday: from the loud chaos, to the quiet times, and all the unscripted moments in-between that merge to form a memory, a home and a family. It is this approach combined with a beautiful aesthetic that sets Alphabet Family Journal apart from a lot of other publications, truly adding something to the printed world. [ Continue reading ]
We really like the first publication by Independent publishing house Zioxla named 'Strange Plants'. The book is a celebration of plants in contemporary art featuring the work of 25 artists: from oozing paintings of rotting cacti to eerie, mesmeric photos of the leafy kudzu vine, and discusses the role plants play in the artists’ personal lives. For the book, editor Zio Baritaux brought together eight artists whose work focuses on the natural world: Erik Parker, Helene Schmitz, Paul Wackers, Lee Kwang-Ho, Taylor McKimens, David Axelbank, Stephen Eichhorn and Aiyana Udesen. In-depth interviews and articles are presented alongside images that showcase the instinctive and unique ways plants are represented in the artists’ works. [ Continue reading ]
Recently the first issue of Modern Design Review saw light, a great new magazine that offers a considered and curated insight into modern product and furniture design, art directed by Graphic Thought Facility and under Editor-in-Chief Laura Houseley. In the launch issue of Modern Design Review an insightful overview is given of the state of design today. Published twice a year and distributed internationally, Modern Design Review covers the best of the product, people and theory at the effervescent tip of the contemporary design world. The publication offers a considered and curated insight into modern design: original and creative storytelling, plus numerous of contributions from photographers, writers and designers, are what distinguishes Modern Design Review. The focus lays on ideas and themes, whether they are central or peripheral, committed to exploring modern design with the creativity and curiosity that the discipline deserves. [ Continue reading ]
In May of this year the inspiring The Word Magazine from Brussels decided it was time to extend their online curation of the best from Belgium into a publication. The beautiful magazine This is Belgium which is the result of this ambition elegantly presents the most interesting initiatives in the country most famous for its fries, chocolate and fashion designers. The magazine is a 164-page guidebook with a broad range of Belgian Art, Food, Photography, Music, Travel and Neighbourhood tips from the The Word’s team of editors. Part useful guide, part passionate love letter, This is Belgium captures our southern neighbor thoroughly, introducing the country with its modest, but part highly creative inhabitants in a beautiful fashion. [ Continue reading ]